


Chords

by CrescentBloodMoon999



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Buck Plays Piano, Buck knows how to play, Chris saves his Buck, Dad Evan "Buck" Buckley, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff/Comfort, I Love You by Riopy, Inspired by Riopy - I Love You, M/M, Multi, SKAM - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22061578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrescentBloodMoon999/pseuds/CrescentBloodMoon999
Summary: Today is the day Buck is going back to the station 118, Eddie, on the other hand, is still mad no, livid on his best friend for suing the department.His family.Looking at the entrance where Buck made his way, looking enthusiastic as ever, he scoffs and made his way towards the locker and ignoring the young man completely.
Relationships: Athena Grant/Bobby Nash, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Henrietta "Hen" Wilson/Karen Wilson, Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Comments: 8
Kudos: 110





	Chords

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Again! Another fanfic for my ship. Inspired by I love you by RIOPY
> 
> I'm going to write two parts of this story. I need your patience and understanding. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this.
> 
> Sorry in advance for any errors you may encounter while reading this first part of the story. 
> 
> Happy New Year!!!!
> 
> Here you go.

Today is the day Buck is going back to the station 118, Eddie, on the other hand, is still mad no, livid on his best friend for suing the department.

His family. 

Looking at the entrance where Buck made his way, looking enthusiastic as ever, he scoffs and made his way towards the locker and ignoring the young man completely. 

The smile Evan wore flickers for a second, his heart heavy from the guilt from suing his team. A wrong move, but all he wants was to get back to his family. Buck stared at the vacated room that was full of his co-workers a while ago. He dropped his bag on the floor without even realizing it. 

***

Eddie sat on the sofa upstairs watching some television show, focusing on the TV and not on this predicament he is in right now with Buck in the same room as him. Bobby is giving Buck the housework, and the young blonde just took it without protest, not making any eye contact.

*

Careful on not aggravating his captain, his father figure, a father he didn't have growing up. 

Buck reverted to one of his attitudes he'd forgotten long ago. The one, his father, thought to him in a hard and battered way.

Handclaps behind his back, head bowing, not meeting anyone's gaze, and taking orders like a good dog.

He tried to apologize to what he had done suing the department and was reciprocated with a sneer and dismiss.

*

He knew right there and then that it will take time for them to forgive him. 

Eating with them in the same room is not the same as it used to be. All eyes were on Buck when he entered the kitchen. He just refilled his bottle with water and walked out of the room. He is eating silently at the bunk room, heart heavy, and chest in pain. 

After Buck was out of the room, Hen looked at her captain with still the stone expression. She continued eating, being subtle at glancing around the table. She hoped Buck would give up, he has forgiven him but her teammates not so much. 

Henrietta might be the one who wouldn't care when you looked at her, but when it comes to family, she is very caring. The pain he saw on the younger man's eyes after he apologized and dismissing like it was nothing. 

Two weeks went by as the treatment of Buck was still the same; day by day, Hen watches the younger man drifts away from their hands. Eddie, on the other hand, is still on the street fighting, Hen knows but he doesn't comment about it. Everyone has a coping mechanism on each human emotion, even she has one, but she kept it in tabs and in-control.

One day after their call from an accident on a car pile-up, everyone was surprised by a grand piano being set-up. 

"What is this?" Captain Nash called the attention to the delivery guys.

"Uh, yes. Sorry, Is this the station one-eighteen?" One of the delivery guys asked named Homer.

"Yes, this is it. I'm the captain. Why is there a piano at my station?" Bobby asked Homer.

"Someone said to deliver this to this station. The Chief?" He said, looking at his tablet, scratching the side of his head with a confused look.

"Ok… Is it from the Chief? Why would he-?" He asked but was cut off by Homer.

"Look, Captain. I – I mean, we were asked to deliver this here, and that's all we know." Homer said to Bobby with a final tone, ending any arguments and questions.

"Ok, set it up over the billiard table," Bobby said, scratching the back of his head in annoyance. 

"Buckley! Clean up the truck." He commands at the blonde, ducking his head low and nodding. 

Hen and Chimney looked at one another, a week ago they talked about the situation in the station, about Buck, and the whole one eighteen crew about their treatment of the younger firefighter. 

"Let him do that Chim, or you're gonna be on gutter duty too." Warned Bobby.

Chim looked upstairs to his captain and back at Buck, who stiffs for a second and continued on his task. The other man walked upstairs and walked towards Hen. 

"We need to do something." He whispered to Hen.

"What? Exactly do you have in your mind?" She asked back.

Buck, on the other hand, cleaned the fire truck and making sure everything is clean, not a spot of dirt present on the hood and its surrounding body. Two weeks had passed, and the whole team is still mad at him even though he already apologized to them. Again, when he apologizes, he only got dismissed just like an annoying fly. 

Eddie was the same as the captain bordering on hostile, so he kept his distance away from the man. The way he looks at him with such scathing and scrutinizing look makes him want to hide and run away. 

When he finished cleaning the truck, he claimed upstairs to get some water, internally thankful for the lack of people in the area. He eyed the newly delivered piano bringing back some euphoria of his childhood being with the chords. He shook his head and continued walking downstairs. His shift was almost over, and he packs everything on his duffle bag. 

He glances up, and he saw Eddie eyeing him, measuring him, the calculating looks looking down at him through his nose and belittling Buck. Hate is still present in the older man's eyes. 

Buck stood up awkwardly head low, not wanting to see the hate on the older man's eyes, it only brings pain to his aching chest. 

He just wanted to go home and sleep.

But nothing is easy in this world, as he was about to go, he shoved back to the locker as Eddie walk passed him. He clenches his jaw from the pain it caused. He immediately walks briskly and goes without looking back. 

He entered his jeep at the far end of the parking lot away from everyone else. He leaned over the steering wheel, resting his head over it. 

He's tired. 

So tired. 

It's only been just two weeks, but it felt like years, his emotionally exhausted, alone, and depressed. 

The next thing he remembered, he was putting his keys on the kitchen table. He blinks in confusion on how he gets here. The last thing Buck remembered was he was leaning on the stirring wheel of his jeep, and the next, he's putting away his keys.

It's been happening lately in two weeks, his mind going blank, and the next thing he knew he was home or somewhere at the park. It's scary when you look at it but to Buck? It seems he's not bothered at all. It somehow comforted him in a way.

Have I gone insane? He asked himself. 

When the organ at the station showed up, he knew what was missing in his life. With so much happening, he forgot the one thing that kept him from being in his head. How could he forget? It was part of him, maybe because he was adapting the life in LA that he forgot one of the things that keep him grounded and sane. 

When he walked in the station with a minute to spare the alarm rings, and he drops his bag and goes straight to his uniform, it was so fast the team gape at him. They thought he broke the record for being soon at wearing the LAFD fire suit in just under thirty seconds. 

But his hopes came short-lived when Bobby told him to stay and clean the station, his chest hurt and throat tightens, tears threatening to spill from embarrassment, he ducks his head and nods like a good dog he is. He saw Eddie with hate still plastered on those brown eyes while arms crossed.

While the whole team gets on the truck, he just stayed there, looking at them with glassy eyes with an unreadable face. He told himself that it's only Bobby being concern with him due to his blood thinners. Willing himself to believe that the latter, it was.

**

Henrietta was the first to go to Bobby to ask why he left Buck at the station alone.

"Was it a wise decision, leaving Buck at the station?" Hen asked.

"Hen, my house my rules. I told him that when I accepted him back." Bobby told Hen when they arrived at the scene.

"I know you're still mad about what the kid pulled. But come on, Bobby, you of all people must see that…" Hen tried, but Bobby just gave him a look. She sighed and got her gear with Chim.

"Did you-?" Chim asked Her.

She just shook her head and continued to walk. She can feel it Buck is giving up hope. 

**

Buck finished cleaning the house station; he was surprised at his work. He is looking around, getting a final look if everything is clean and according to places. He really must have enjoyed it somehow, surprising himself how fast he works today. 

Now what? 

Everything is clean as what Bobby told him to do. 

He felt his anxiety rising from what he felt, the nagging feeling.

He walked upstairs and hovered at the piano, sitting putting his hand over the chords, inhaling, making him calm in an instant. 

Music is his escape throughout his childhood when everything gets hard to handle. He puts his Walkman on and escapes to his peaceful, tranquil world me made just for him. He's battling his Depression since he was young, nobody knows. His coping mechanism was his music and the piano, it eased his dull thrumming in his head, keeping the darkest thought at bay. Recently his control is wavering; seeing a knife or a blade makes him wonder.

***

He struck a chord to test, then another until he's producing a symphony. I Love You by RIOPY. He shortened the original song and made his alteration; he played it for approximately two minutes and thirty seconds straight. 

He sighed contented like he took one of his medication long forgotten. He closed the piano and walked down to undress his uniform; his shift ends in a few minutes. 

The team hasn't come back from their call yet, and he thinks he's the only one here, and he doesn't want to leave the station without people looking after him. So, he waited for the honking of the firetrucks outside signals the team's arrival. 

He sat the locker room waiting for everything to settle down outside. He walks out slowly; he knows that the team is upstairs talking and drinking water, eating some leftover from the fridge. He punches his card, walking out of the station without anyone noticing. He was grateful. Walking towards his jeep and entered, he stepped on the gas and drove away from the station.

Little did Buck knows that one of the firefighters Jules was recording him play the piano. Jules was the quiet one on the station one-eighteen; her presence was invisible to anyone who wasn't paying much attention. She recorded the video when she heard a chord sung.

**

The captain was reheating the leftover when he noticed how clean and intact everything is, he knows he's been hard on the kid later, but he has his reasons. 

Dumb reasons. Bobby knows that it was wrong of him to suspend Buck from duty. Eventually, metaphorically speaking, 'stabbing him at the back' as the kid said, but Buck grows on him like a son he ever wanted. Now, Bobby didn't know. He missed the way the younger firefighter looks at him.

Adoration. 

Like a child looking at his father, Bobby treats Buck as his son. He doesn't want Buck to be hurt again. Of course, the lawsuit was a bit much, but Bobby can't blame the kid for all of this was his fault. 

"Where's Buckley?" He asked everyone around him.

Chim looked around; everyone is shaking their heads, even Eddie shrugged. 

"He's not down here either. His shift ended a while ago." Hen told him, giving him a look. 

Bobby just sighed. 

"Hey guys, take a look at this." Chim showed them a video where Buck was at the piano.

They watched as the kid sit and sighed, inhaling, keeping himself calm and played. It was a beautiful piece. The focus on the younger firefighter was there. The smile on the kid's face when he hit the just right notes as Bobby watches; he felt every tone and the melody of the song as Buck nods his head.

*

Eddie was in a trance as he watched the video playing. He knows that he was hostile to Buck. He knows it was wrong; he knows the reason why Buck did what he did. It was foolish of him being mad and bordering hostile on Buck.

*

When the video stops playing, they looked at each other with wide eyes, and they didn't know that Buck could play like that. Well, they didn't know everything about the younger firefighter. He's very guarded about his past. Even Maddie, on the other hand, didn't want to talk about it, Chim tried but nothing. 

"Well, that was beautiful and unexpected." Hen said, appreciating the piece Buck played.

"I thought…" Chim said and was cut off short by the team.

"We know." Said the three of them.

"You know what that piece he was playing?" Eddie asked to them. They just shook their heads.

"RIOPY composed that piece – I love you, Buck's rendition version from the song." Someone said behind them. It was Jules.

"Hi!" she said, waving at them.

"Hey, Jules. You know that song?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, it was from a TV show I can't remember the name." She said, scratching her head. 

"But it was from a character that expresses his love but got hurt in return. It beautifully rendered, though." Jules said, nodding her head in appreciation as he plays his video on her phone.

Bobby looked at Hen which she returned with a knowing look, he glanced at Chim and Eddie and continued reheating the leftovers.

****

Buck sighed as he opens the door of his apartment, he turned on the TV for some noise keeping his apartment somewhat alive.

He put his bag beside the sofa and walked upstairs to get showered and change. He was crawling into his bed, letting his exhaustion in taking him asleep within a minute. 

Morning came, rubbing his eyes and goes to the bathroom for his morning routine. He looked at the clock with still an hour to spare, and he ate some breakfast and settle in front of the TV watching the news for today. After he finished his breakfast, he put it in the kitchen sink and bolted out for the door grabbing the necessities.

He entered the station early with thirty minutes to spare and punch in, getting in the locker to change his civilian outfit into his standard-issue LAFD uniform. 

The same routine as usual.

Checking and cleaning the truck.

His head low, keeping everything to himself.

He noticed that Cap was already in his office. He averted his gaze and focused on something else one by one the members of the one eighteen arrived.

Buck is working around the station while everyone is upstairs laughing. He didn't pay much attention to it; of course, he would be lying to himself if he didn't miss being with them upstairs. He longs for that camaraderie again, jokes thrown to each other, the embarrassing stories, and even some problems that need advice. 

It stings, and he just continued on his checklist for today. 

He smelled the food Bobby is cooking from downs stairs the aroma, which sends a growling sound of his stomach. He cleared his throat and grab a protein bar from his side pocket and devoured it. 

It's is pretty much his meals from the two weeks, take outs, and ordering pizza. No homemade meals, and it clearly shows how his body is losing weight. 

Afternoon came, and Buck noticed the pouring of people from outside the station, all of them carrying food, families smiling like there's an occasion. Again, he's not invited his shift ends anyway today. Eddie is nowhere to be found, including Hen and Chim, Bobby was—is still probably cooking upstairs. 

He headed inside the locker room and took a shower, releasing from the grime and sweat from working around the station. 

He was punching in his time and ready to walk out of the station when someone called for him. It was Hen.

"Where do you think you're going, Buckaroo?" She asks, raising an eyebrow. He retorted back with the same gesture.

"Home, I guess?" He said. He is dreading to go to his empty apartment. 

"Come on. Everyone is waiting for us upstairs." He gestured her hands to come.

"I should get going, I'm not invited—" Buck was cutoff because Hen drags him inside while tugging his arms. "Non-sense were going. Come on!" she insisted.

When they arrived upstairs, it's crowded. Families were talking; he sees Athena with the kids and Hen with her wife and Danny, he saw Christopher with Eddie and his Abuela, Bobby talking to Michael.

He felt uncomfortable seeing them; guilt hugs him like a blanket covering his entire being. Out of nowhere, a small-framed body was pressed against him, startled he looked down, and Christopher was hugging him like a koala hugging a tree, his Superman.

"Hey, Superman." He said, hugging the kid back, kneeling to kids' height hugging him again.

"Hi, Buck. I miss you." He said while still hugging the blonde.

"Me too, Superman. Me too." He said, keeping himself composed and holding his sob escaping.

"How are you doing, Chris?" The blonde asks the kid.

"I'm great! I made new friends at school. They're very nice and friendly, and I miss you the most." Chris said hands-on Buck's cheek, soothing him. "You're gonna be ok, kid," Chris said, and Buck can't stop the smile forming with eyes crinkling from the joy he felt seeing the kid, in only two weeks it felt like two years. 

Buck closed his eyes at the soothing caress of Christopher's hand on his cheek. He stops himself from sobbing right there and then.

Unknown to Buck, everyone stopped, and looking at the scene, it was sweet, and when Buck smiles brightly, lovingly, teeth showing, and eyes crinkling from the joy. 

Athena and Eddie's Abuela can't stop the tears forming in their eyes. To them, Buck smiles like the sun brightly shining upon seeing Christopher. Even Athena started with Buck on the wrong foot, but the young firefighter grew on her like a son. Eddie's Abuela can't stop thinking about how Eddie still being an idiot. Right there is pure love and unconditional, given freely and openly without holding anything back.

***

"Buck?" Christopher asks, looking at the piano.

"Yeah, Superman?" He replied, looking at the kid then follows his gaze towards the piano.

"Can you play that?" Chris said, pointing at the piano. 

"Do you want me to teach you?" Buck said to Chris, and the kid looks up to him with a bright smile. Buck throws everything out of the window. He didn't care if the team is watching; his focus is on the kid. "Can you?" Chris asks.

"Come on. I'll teach you." The young blonde ushered the kid towards the organ. 

"Can you first play a song?" Christopher asks. "Ok, what song do you like?" Buck asks.

"I don't know… Up to you then." Chris said.

"Ok, I have one," Buck said, looking at Chris smiling.

Then when everything settles, Buck struck one chord teasing Chris with a look, and the kid giggled at him.

Then he upped his pace, and the song erupted from the piano, Buck still smiling at Chris. The kid looks at him with adoration and love, seeing his Buck plays with a smile on his face, smiling at Christopher playing. I LOVE YOU by RIOPY.

While Buck is busy playing, entertaining Christopher, the people in the station looks at the two with smiles on their faces. Bobby's face projects all kinds of different emotion all at once, Eddie is watching Buck with a feeling that is between admiration and love towards the younger firefighter who's playing the piano. His heart warmed at the looks his son gives to Buck; his guilt is still there, though.

Henrietta smiles at the two, Buck playing for Christopher and damn the others. She grabs Karen hugging her, while Denny, on her other side, is watching them. Chim and Maddie side by side looking at the two, while the others listen and basking on the music Bucks' producing.

***

When Buck ended the song, he glances at Christopher and smiles, the kid smile and hugs Bucks' side. 

"What was that for?" He asks, not hiding his broken voice.

"I just want to hug you." Chris then cried on his side.

"Oh, Buddy, come here," Buck said. Picking Christopher up and hug him properly and stands up.

Everyone started clapping loudly, and Buck turns to them wide-eye, now realizing that they were all there, still hugging the crying Christopher.

He saw his sister wiping her eyes, Chim hugging her tight beside him. 

Hen is smiling at him when their eyes meet, and she nodded on Buck. His eyes landed on Chris Abuela, saying something to Eddie and smacking his head. Athena laughs, and Bobby smiles at them, then Eddie is walking towards them. Buck tensed slightly, and it was immediately gone the second. 

He was surprised when Eddie hugs him with Chris still on his arms sobbing, and he greeted Eddie with everything he had at that moment, nothing in the world matters than this here. His eyes watered and tears were running down his cheeks when Eddie said.

"I'm sorry, Buck. I'm sorry." 

Buck just hugged Eddie in response, not trusting himself to speak. All of his exhaustion vanished the moment the two of the most critical people hug him. The warmth and the smell of Eddie pressed against him is enough to make everything better. 

"Dad, you're not mad at Buck anymore?" Chris asks, looking at Eddie with puffy eyes. 

Eddie shakes his head and said, "No, Buddy, not anymore, and I'm going to keep it that way." He looks at Chris then at Buck.

Buck looks down while Eddie took Chris from Buck's arms and called the younger man's attention.

"Come over, let's talk."

**Author's Note:**

> The second part of this story is already in draft, needs time to clean my jumbled ideas. 
> 
> I hope you understand. 
> 
> Love you guys. PEACE!!!
> 
> CBM999


End file.
